It certainly has been an interesting week so far 😊. Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s weather.

As long as classes are on tomorrow, Junior and Senior Jazz Ensembles will be attending the Vancouver Kiwanis Jazz Festival so please ensure your child arrives in the band room at 8:00am in their uniform with their instrument, music and a bag lunch as we will not have the opportunity to purchase one. We will be traveling by district busses to the Bethany Baptist Church in Richmond. The email band member parents should have received at about 6:50pm Tuesday evening included another copy of the information letter that went out previously to clarify any other details. We will be back by 2:30pm as our buses are part of the regular school bus schedule.

Please check the district website Wednesday morning for any clarification necessary regarding weather. If for some reason your child is not attending tomorrow, please let me know so I am able to adjust our plans accordingly.

Many Thanks – Mr. Follett

P.S. Members of Senior Wind Ensemble, please remember that regardless of the weather, we have no rehearsal tomorrow before school due to the festival

While the district has not yet made a decision regarding school today, the snow is still falling here and I would rather ere on the side of safety. As such, I am cancelling our Junior Jazz rehearsal for this morning to give more time for roads to be plowed before anyone makes the trek to school. Please check the SD35 website and social media for the district’s call for the rest of the day.

REGARDING TOMORROW’S FESTIVAL IN RICHMOND: Please assume that we are still on for the Kiwanis Jazz Festival tomorrow, but I will email and post to social media and www.dwpoppymusic.comregarding tomorrow’s participation as soon as I have more information.

If your child hasn’t dropped off their permission form, today during the day or tomorrow morning will be fine

I am still looking for one or two more chaperones so if you are available to join us, please let me know.

With so much snow this morning, Senior Jazz rehearsal is moved to lunch time assuming schools are open today. Take the extra time to drive safe and check the SD35 website for updates. Please share and see you at lunch time today

We did Semester 1 self-reflections in class on Thursday and Friday which are open-ended. Students are simply asked to comment on the evidence students have of the work they have done and progress they have made in the last 5 months considering:

Music Literacy (knowledge)

Technique (playing it “right”)

Artistry (connecting your performance with other musicians and the audience)

Musician’s Mindset (the non-musical thought processes and actions involved in learning and playing).

Students who did not complete them in class are reminded to submit them by Monday morning.

We’re pleased to announce that as of Sunday evening, ESPRESSIVO 2018 is officially sold out! While we have no table seats left (which include the desserts etc.) if you didn’t happen to get a ticket, you can see the show. We will be opening the bleachers Wednesday evening for admission by donation as we want to ensure everyone sees the kids play. Looking forward to another great show!

Please note that performers only require a ticket if you would like them to join you at your table during the concert when they are done their performance.

Doors open at 5:00pm and in addition to a night of great musical performances beginning at 6:30pm, food trucks including Big Reds Poutine, Wings, & Helms Mobile Kitchen will have dinner available for purchase from 5-7pm. The evening also includes coffee and desserts, a “balloon pop” fundraiser, raffle, and silent auction. Proceeds from the event help us subsidize costs to participate in festivals and competitions, put on concerts in the community to connect our students outside the school, bring in guest artists to work with our young musicians, and most importantly, to provide instruments and partial tour funding to our students in need who would otherwise be unable to participate, so thank you so much for your generous support!

Your purchase will put you on the Will-Call list at the door, but as this is our first year moving to SchoolCashOnline, please print off your receipt or bring a “screen cap” on your phone

We encourage families put purchase their tickets online, but if you do not pay school fees online, you can pay with cash/cheque (payable to DW Poppy Secondary School) in the band room. Please note that this event sells out most years so order your tickets soon!

In preparation for everyone’s holiday entertaining, the next round of Neufeld Farms fundraising is now live. Orders are due no later than 12Noon on Thursday, November 29. Pickup is at 6:30pm on Wednesday, December 12th. Details are available via our Fundraising page.

We had a great series of concerts last week with our Senior Night of Music, Junior Night of Music and two Remembrance Day performances. Thanks to Mr. Janzen’s tech crew, we have live streams of both our evening shows. (Audio is much improved on the second evening’s recording).

Please remember that we have Poinsettia Sales running through Friday, November 23 and a heads up that we will be posting details for both our next Neufeld Farms sale and ESPRESSIVO 2018 shortly. Thanks to our parent volunteers for making this all happen!